Building ‘Stronger’
I am no gym connoisseur. I don’t have abs of steel, or a ‘shelf’ (🍑), I never bother to weigh myself, and I prefer to call the roman chair extension an ‘upside down dolphin’ instead. But this is all entirely WHY I created my app ‘Stronger’.
I’ve never been able to go to a gym for more than a week. I always end up falling off — I’ll do the week free trial, go once, be sore for 3 days after, then next thing I know the week is up and there goes another trial. Why bother joining? And there’s been countless times that Sam has encouraged me, or dragged me along with him, offered to pay for my membership or buy me new activewear, but it’s just never STUCK.
So, me being me (Life Coach things), I asked myself “what is the block that prevents me from going to the gym?”, and the answer was:
Social anxiety — the gym is the only place this comes up for me, but it comes up massively. In my head I think everyone is watching me, thinking I’m doing it wrong, that I’m an idiot, that I have zero muscle, and don’t even know what I’m doing. Having a man approach you to tell you how to do an exercise ‘the right way’ is another reason I’ve cancelled a gym membership 💀
Quite literally not knowing what I’m doing, and there being too much to learn or know where to start
Not having any intention, goal, something to work towards (other than ‘feel good’ or ‘look good’ → too generic)
But, I live by the saying that “nothing changes if nothing changes”.
I recently went through a chapter where I needed to choose myself again. I was becoming too clingy to Sam, resentful, needy, all “why aren’t you seeing everything I do for you?” (very unaligned Projector of me) and obsessing over him. I looked at myself and thought “who tf are you?” and decided to make a change. To choose me. Stop caring so much, stop being in a negative state of mind, stop bitching and judging and expecting and just fucking let go and choose ME. So, I booked in a weekly heels class (see: sparkly red stripper heels). I texted some girlfriends and arranged some hang outs. And I walked into a gym to check it out. Not to impress Sam, who’s always wanted his partner to train with him, but for myself, so I could get my body moving and see what she could transform into.
I took that block of “I can’t go to the gym because I don’t know what I’m doing” and overcame it. I signed up with a PT, and told her “I don’t actually want personal training or a weekly plan or program, I just want you to use these sessions to teach me how to use the machines and exercises”. I knew that if I didn’t have enough to do at the gym, because I didn’t know what to do, then I would just fall off again. And I was actually really enjoying it!
But I said to my trainer during our second session, “how do you keep track of what weight you have on each machine each time?” and she said I can just write it in my notes app or something. But that seemed really messy and unorganised, and would mean scrolling through pages of notes and exercises trying to find the last time you used that machine, how many reps and at what weight. Not efficient (Projector’s are all about efficiency, working smarter not harder, as we have very little energy as it is!). I went home that night and looked up “exercise tracker” on the App Store, and only found 2 which were ugly, generic blue and white, male-aimed ones. That wouldn’t do at all.
SO… I MADE MY OWN!! 🥳 The ‘Growing Stronger’ app (AKA ‘Stronger’) is an workout tracker, so you can enter your exercises — whether it be free weights, machines, body weight or cardio — and you can actually see the increase in your strength via a graph (this Virgo lovesss data). There are so many machines and exercises to do, and for real consistency you need to know the weight you can lift each time, and then increase that over time. There was no way I was going to remember that I was doing 20kg for a lat pulldown, 15 reps of the hanging knee raise, 35kg for abductions but only 14kg for adductions, only 2 sets of 20kg for the glute drive to start with, hold a 10kg weight to chest for roman chair extension (12 reps each set) and on and on it goes! How was there not an aesthetic, functional, inspirational app with beautiful data before this??
What Stronger is:
A place to visually see your growth and increased strength
A reminder of what weights you’re currently lifting, which decreases mind-noise or decision fatigue
A powerful motivation + intention for going to the gym!
A frequency tracker (monthly view of how often you’ve worked out)
What Stronger is not:
A weight loss app
A meal planner
A program
An AI assistant
It’s clean, it’s simple, and it’s intentional. Of course when you’re building your own app, the world is your oyster and you can go silly with features and functions and haptics and add-ons. But we don’t need more noise. We need calm, beautiful simplicity, and an app that does what it says it will — keep you accountable, keep you clear, and keep you showing up.
Since creating this app, I’ve found myself incredibly eager and excited to go to the gym! I truly owe my consistency in actually training multiple times a week and wanting to go to the gym, to this app. Genuinely, if I didn’t have it, then I wouldn’t have it as my “why” of showing up, I’d have stopped going after two weeks once the novelty wore off and I was bored with the meagre 5 exercises I knew, and I wouldn’t be pushing myself to learn more, practice my form, and actually get to know the machines and exercises that are available to us all. I now want to show up, and I want to lift heavier (mindfully, aligned with what feels good for my body), and it’s incredible to watch myself grow stronger — both visually via the graphs, PB’s, and weight tracker in the app, but also physically too. Never in my life have I seen definition start to come through in my muscles until now! Only took nearly 33 years 😂
There has been so many pieces of mindful intention woven into the app, that the average person might not realise at first. You don’t have the pressure of a habit tracker, where if you miss a day or a few, then you just think “f*ck it, the streak is gone anyway” and stop going. Instead, you see your month quietly and gradually fill up with coloured dots, to show how frequently you’re going. I almost didn’t show up on Friday because I was a bit sniffly, but I thought “there would be too much of a gap of white space if I don’t go”, so I did! Here’s some more little ways I’ve woven mindfulness and healthy motivation into the app:
How Stronger is a Mindful Fitness App:
The "last time" memory removes decision fatigue at the machine » less standing around wondering, and less mind-noise (this is its main feature and unique point over other apps)
No push notifications nagging you to train, at all
There aren’t any streaks of habit trackers. You won’t feel guilty with "you broke your momentum" pings, you just see dots quietly filling the month in, every time you show up. Quiet satisfaction and internal pride for yourself 😌
There’s zero weight loss framing anywhere; body weight is optional and buried in check-ins, never on the home screen
No calorie targets, no deficit tracking, no food logging at all. There’s enough of those, and this isn’t one.
For a beginner: You can favourite exercises that you’re doing most frequently, where you will get to know their proper names. You can call them what you like, in your own language and descriptions ("blue one near the mirrors"), and make notes where you need to help you remember position, form, where the weights go, heck I’ve even noted where the handbrake for the glute drive goes! This removes the shame of not knowing the proper names, and supports your mental learning too.
No leaderboards, no social feed, nobody else's numbers to measure yourself against (unless some of ya’ll want that? 👀)
No before/after photo framing — progress photos exist, but they're private and unprompted
Body measurements are entirely optional, and the app never comments on them
The rest timer is beautiful (encourages you to actually use it!) and says "breathe & recover" — it frames rest as part of the work, not a gap in it
The welcome moment celebrates showing up before you've lifted anything: "You showed up. That's the hardest part."
Session reflections capture how it felt, not just what you lifted — the period days, the still-recovering-from-last-session days, the "can’t do this exercise at all yet wtf" (hello RDL’s) days
The monthly and weekly intention keeps your why visible, and appears again as you start a workout
The Sunday intention prompt asks once and never nags if ignored (no way in hell am I gonna guilt trip you into being on this app 24/7)
Microcopy that's gentle when you're not at your best: "Showing up on a hard day counts double"
Progress is measured against your own previous numbers, never against a norm or a target
Editable start and end times, plus the ability to add to a finished session — the app bends to your day rather than punishing you for being human
Everything stays on your device; nothing is uploaded, scored or shared unless you choose to!
One of the things I love the most is that you’re also anticipating the day you can lift heavier and see that result in the graph of your growth. I’ll never push myself to exertion and if anything I’m quite gentle on myself as I’m just at the beginning of my fitness journey and want to keep it healthy and positive, but I’m also challenging myself to lift heavier where I can!
And of course, the best part is absolutely being able to easily see what your last stats (weight, reps, sets) were for each exercise as you go to do them again. It’s like that piece of looking out for your future self, so you can just stay focused on the task at hand (lifting) without delving through your notes app, not to mention feel inspired to go for increased reps or weights. And another bonus is it’s really helping me learn the machines and exercises — it’s tickling that part of my brain who’s hungry for knowledge + mastery 🤓
I’m someone who has dedicated herself to mental and spiritual growth for the past thirteen years. Now it’s time to incorporate that care for my body too. Plus, I kinda want to see what this body can turn into! I’m in my 30’s now, and Sam and I are coming to the stark realisation that our bodies are changing. Age is actually catching up with our tummies for the first time in our lives 🥲 So, if not now, then when? ✨
I created an app for myself, and accidentally stumbled upon a hole in the market, and an incredibly helpful tool for both new and experienced gym-goers. Growing Stronger will be available in the App Store in September 2026, and will be FREE for the entire month 🎉
